The Green Bay Packers fell to 1-2 Thursday night football In a shocking 35-14 loss at home to the Atlanta Falcons. The Packers came off the field looking high, and their star tight ends Tucker Kraft made it even more embarrassing with his post-match comments..
The loss has Packers fans wondering where the wheels fell off and whether the season can be salvaged.
Now the Packers have a bit of a bye week to get things right before the season really gets away from them. Can they turn things around in time or could 2026 be a lost year for Green Bay?
When trying to right the ship, here are some possible areas of focus. These six stats show where things went wrong for Green Bay this year and where they can improve over the rest of the season.
We’ll start with perhaps the biggest area of concern: the running game.
In three games, the Packers averaged just 48.7 Rushing yards per game on the ground. That leaves Green Bay dead last in the NFL and the only team averaging under 50 rushing yards. The Cleveland Browns, who rank 31st in the division, are averaging 65.5 yards per game.
To put that another way, the Packers’ rushing attack is -0.448 Expected points added per game.. They are 31st in the league, ahead of only the Los Angeles Chargers.
We’ll stick with the running game for a moment, because it’s that bad.
Marshawn Lloyd leads the way for Green Bay. 68 rushing yards this season. For comparison, BJean Robinson last night from the Packers to the Atlanta Falcons…had 111 in the first half alone.
Robinson finished Thursday night’s game with 194 rushing yards. That’s more than the Packers have accomplished on the ground as a team this season. Through three games, the Packers have just 146 rushing yards with Lloyd, Chris Brooks, Caleb Johnson and Jordan Love combined.
Now let’s talk about the Packers passing game.
This stat is the percentage of drops that Love has been pressured this season. Falling 44.4% this season – 133 overall – Love is under pressure; Charter by Pro football focus.
Thursday night was worse for Love and the Packers, according to chart data from Pro football focus He pressured Atlanta on a 45.5% drop rate. On those 25 plays, he completed just 9 of 25 passes (a completion percentage of just 39.1 percent) for 116 yards and an interception.
Here is that hack:
Brandon Dorless made a quick swim move by rookie left guard Jaeger Burton — a fifth-round pick out of Kentucky — and threw it up the middle to Love. Love makes the throw under pressure, and his eyes direct safety Xavier Watts to the football.
Continuing his woes in pass blocking is Love, who averaged 2.92 seconds to “throw” this season. Charter by Pro football focus.
That ranks Love 33rd out of 33, and he’s the only player with an average throw time of less than three seconds.
Starting with this sack Thursday night, Pressure then reached Love by less than three seconds.
In this Week 1 matchup, a spark from the rim will push Love as soon as he hits the drop.
This is generally not a good thing.
Now, love is not flawless. Take this game from Week 2 with the New York Jets tied 7-7 early in the third quarter against the New York Jets in a 1st-and-25 situation.
As noted in the clip, Love can help himself here and throw a shallow route to Johnson, who runs left to right. Instead, he pulls the ball downfield, allowing the Jets to hold him with three pressures.
But this highlights the impact of constant pressure on the quarterback. When you can help yourself, you feel more pressure than you should. Certainly the protection should be generally better, but love should help itself where and when.
We need another offensive line stat to show the bad things.
As he says ESPN Pass block win rateThis was the percentage of snaps in which the Packers’ offensive line held blocks for 2.5 seconds or longer in Thursday night’s game against the Falcons.
Entering Week 3, Green Bay is ranked 32nd in the league.
It’s hard to see how that could have improved much, even though their numbers have yet to come in from Thursday night’s game against the Falcons.
Let’s switch to the other side of football for a moment.
this is. Defensive Expectations Points Per Game Added For Green Bay. 0.092 this season. Compared to other league games, it is ranked 25th out of 32 teams.
When you add this to Green Bay’s offensive EPA, as RBSDM What works here is to generate “team rankings,” where you’ll see the Packers in the bottom left quadrant, meaning they’re below league average in both categories.
and the Cleveland Browns, in a group that includes the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins:
Maybe it’s not where you want to be.
When you put the pieces together, they tell a story. A story of a team that struggles in the hole, a team that struggles to run the football, a quarterback under pressure in the pocket and a defense that’s being asked to pick up on several weaknesses in a league driven by offense.
And that tells the story of a 1-2 team, already on the ropes before October.
